Governor Strong, and clerics Elijah Parish and John Gardiner were not the only ones to object to war with Britain. They were in touch with public opinion. By August of 1812, New England was rocked by protests:
“Our common interests, liberties and safety are now more injured, oppressed and endangered, by the doings of our own National Government, than they were when in 1775 we took arms to protect and defend them against the measures of the government of Great Britain.”[1]
Essex County Federalist
New Englanders reconsidered disunion. They saw no need to help the war effort. Federalists revived plans for a convention. Thomas Dawes, a prominent Massachusetts politician, hinted at this in a letter to Noah Webster, the well-known lexicographer and political writer:
“There is but one way left to save us from the yoke of Bonaparte and Virginia, the rising of the New England people. I mean nothing illegal or unconstitutional; I do not mean a Whiskey rebellion or any thing like it. You know what I mean, and tho’ late, I think with you it is not too late.”[2]
Next: What Noah Webster had already done
Look for it Monday, July 7
[1] Quoted by James M. Banner, Jr. in To the Hartford Convention: The Federalists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachusetts 1789-1815, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf) 307-8.
[2] Thomas Dawes to Noah Webster, quoted by Banner in To the Hartford Convention, 308.
